Payment cards such as credit cards, debit cards and/or prepaid cards are ubiquitous and have been used by consumers for decades. Such cards typically include a magnetic stripe which stores the relevant account number and other data. To initiate a typical purchase transaction with such a card, the card is swiped through a magnetic stripe reader that is part of a point-of-sale (POS) terminal and the reader reads the account number and other data from the magnetic stripe. The account number is then used to route a transaction authorization request that is initiated by the POS terminal. The authorization request is typically routed from the merchant's acquiring financial institution (the “acquirer”) to a server computer operated by or on behalf of the issuer financial institution that issued the payment account (the “issuer”), and the issuer's server computer provides a response. If the authorization response indicates that the issuer authorized the transaction, the transaction is consummated at the POS terminal.
Payment cards have been developed that allow the account number to be automatically read from the payment card by radio frequency communications. In particular, a “proximity reader” which, for example, is incorporated with the POS terminal, is configured to read the account number and/or other transaction information from the payment card. Such payment cards are often referred to as “proximity payment cards” or “contactless payment cards”, and conventionally include a radio frequency identification (RFID) integrated circuit (IC, often referred to as a “chip”) embedded in the payment card body. A suitable antenna is also embedded in the payment card body and is connected to the RFID chip to allow the chip to receive and transmit data by RF communication via the antenna. In typical arrangements, the RFID chip is powered from an interrogation signal transmitted by the proximity reader and received by the payment card antenna. In some embodiments, the payment card account number and other information may be uploaded from the IC payment card to the POS terminal during a purchase transaction. Authorization and clearing may then proceed in substantially the same manner as for a transaction initiated with a magnetic stripe payment card (putting aside additional security measures that may be implemented by using the processing capabilities of the IC payment card). An example of a contactless payment card standard is the “PayPass™” payment card system established by MasterCard International Incorporated, the assignee hereof. Wireless exchanges of information via NFC (Near Field Communication) have been developed for contactless or proximity payment applications.
The capabilities of a contactless payment card have been incorporated into a mobile device, such as a mobile telephone or smartphone, which turns that mobile device into a contactless payment device or payment-enabled mobile device. Since NFC technology complements many popular consumer level wireless technologies by utilizing key elements in existing standards for contactless card technology (for example, ISO/IEC 14443 A&B and JIS-X 6319-4), NFC-enabled mobile devices, such as NFC-enabled Smartphones, are manufactured and are compatible with existing contactless card infrastructure. Such an NFC-enabled mobile devices enables consumers to utilize one device across different systems (for example, as a mobile telephone, as a contactless payment device, and as a contactless identification device which can be used to gain access to buildings and/or to access transportation services and the like). In order to utilize an NFC-enabled mobile device as a contactless payment device, a payment card account number and other account or device-specific information is loaded into the mobile device by a process typically referred to as “personalization.” Personalization of the mobile device may occur in an over the air (OTA) personalization process. Persons skilled in the art understand that “personalization” refers to the process by which consumer or user- and/or account-specific information is loaded into and/or otherwise applied to a payment-enabled mobile device. The account-specific information may include a consumer identifier, a payment card account number associated with a payment card account, and other consumer financial account information that may be provided by an issuer financial institution (FI) computer to the mobile device and loaded into a secure memory.
Mobile devices, such as mobile telephones, are manufactured and distributed by the mobile handset industry independently from the distribution channels typically utilized by the financial services industry. Consequently, the NFC functionality of the payment application running on a mobile device cannot be readily subjected to the same kind of testing that contactless payment cards typically undergo. Therefore, if a problem is reported by a consumer after purchase of a mobile telephone, logistical problems arise with regard to transporting a mobile telephone/contactless payment device to a test facility for troubleshooting. In addition, mobile telephones are expensive pieces of equipment and cannot just be replaced with a new device upon request by a consumer.
Many reasons can be provided to explain why a payment-enabled mobile device (for example, a mobile telephone or smartphone that has been personalized so as to be capable of engaging in purchase transactions) does not work correctly or is non-functional when presented at a reader device or proximity reader, for example, in a retail store. Moreover, although mobile telephone sales representatives in retail stores have experience troubleshooting radio frequency problems (related to making wireless telephone calls), they typically have little or no experience with NFC problems that may occur (related to making purchase transactions). Thus, the first assumption that the consumer (owner of the mobile device) typically makes is that the payment hardware (the NFC circuitry) or the payment software of the mobile device is defective. Since it is not practical for the consumer to return his or her mobile device to a repair facility or to ship it back to the device supplier, the consumer typically seeks support from the mobile device supplier and/or manufacturer.
As the NFC technology in the consumer's mobile device represents only short range communication functionality, the consumer must be physically present at a payment terminal (such as a cash register or other point-of-sale (POS) device) in order to test the NFC functionality of the mobile device. If the consumer is no longer in a merchant's retail store then he or she cannot use the mobile device to attempt to make another purchase (or a further purchase) to retry and/or test the NFC circuitry and/or payment software. Moreover, it may be difficult for the consumer to remember, and therefore follow, any directions provided on a website, or provided verbally via telephone from a customer service representative of the mobile device supplier at their next visit to a Merchant retail store location, at which the consumer can attempt to again use their mobile device at a payment terminal. Thus, consumers may be directed to ship the mobile device to a testing facility, which may be at the manufacturer's or device supplier's expense. In some cases, the consumer is provided with a replacement mobile device. In addition to the shipping costs and mobile device replacement costs, additional costs may be incurred by the mobile device manufacturer or distributor (such as a mobile phone retailer), such as costs associated with employing test personnel. In addition, the consumer who purchased the mobile device with NFC circuitry (such as an NFC-enabled mobile telephone) may be unhappy and/or dissatisfied because he or she may be left without a functioning mobile device for some period of time (until a replacement arrives), which may result in the loss of that person as a customer.
The inventors therefore recognized that an opportunity exists for providing simple, cost effective and accurate systems and/or processes that can be utilized by consumers to test the functionality of the short range communications hardware (for example, NFC circuitry or other type of contactless communications circuitry) of their mobile devices.